


Harbor

by havisham



Series: havisham's SASO 2017 works collection [33]
Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-22 00:06:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11368473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/havisham/pseuds/havisham
Summary: Sousuke always finds a home with Rin, no matter where they are.





	Harbor

**Author's Note:**

> Written for SASO 2017 Bonus Round Three: Fan Soundtracks, for the [prompt](): SouRin, [Harbor - Vienna Teng.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKDXe0FP2wc)

Rin was extremely adaptable and probably could be happy anywhere, as long as he made progress with his goals. Sousuke was far less flexible -- some would even call him rigid, if you could believe it -- but he knew a good thing when he saw it. 

It was the second summer after high school and he'd taken time off to visit Rin in Sydney. The visit promised to be three long weeks with only Rin as company, and Sousuke couldn't wait for it, had planned, dreamed, and stressed about it for months beforehand. His parents worried about him, wondering if it wasn't cruel for Sousuke to go ahead and see Rin pursue his dream while his own had been crushed so thoroughly. But Sousuke insisted. He wanted to see Rin, see him in his natural habitat -- competition. 

The flight to Sydney was a long one, with one stopover in Singapore. Sousuke mostly slept or listened listlessly to his music. His seatmates -- an old guy on one side and a young woman on the other, both gave him annoyed glances at the broadness of his shoulders, but it couldn't really be helped. 

Flying always made him cranky and it didn't help that the plane arrived in Sydney at the absolute asscrack of dawn. Sousuke shuffled through customs in a fog and flubbed a question with one of the custom officials, which earned him an extra-long screening, and at the end of it, he was thoroughly sick of the whole thing and was ready to get right back on the plane and fly back to Japan. 

Instead, however, he went to the baggage claim and found his dufflebag almost right away. He swung it over his good shoulder and that was when he saw Rin. “Hey, Sousuke!” Rin shouted over the crowd of people, waving a sign over his head. “Over here!” 

Sousuke began to laugh. “What's with the sign?” he asked Rin when they came close enough to talk. “Did you think I'd forget what you looked like?” 

“Nah, I just wanted to see your face when you saw it,” Rin said proudly, presenting the sign to him. On it was a picture of Sousuke with a Snapchat filter haphazardly slapped across his face, tongue lolling and ears flopping down almost over his eyes. LOST DOG, declared a block of text across the top. 

“... Rin,” Sousuke said calmly, “this is absolutely garbage.” 

“Don't be like that,” Rin said with a grin. “So you want something to eat now or can you wait to go home?” 

“Forget about food --” 

Rin fake gasped. 

Sousuke grinned at him, “Take me to the beach.” 

*

They had breakfast -- a convenience store bacon-sausage-cheese roll that they'd split between them -- and ate it on the beach. Sousuke regretted this decision with every bite. Rin only laughed at him. “People only go to convenience stores out of desperation here. Way not to eat like a local.” 

“Shut up,” Sousuke said sulkily. He began to tear up the roll and toss it to the seagulls that were milling around him. 

“Hey, don’t feed them!” Rin said, alarmed, but it was too late. They were engulfed in a seething mass of seagulls quickly and barely escaped with their lives -- minus the sausage roll. 

*  
Sousuke liked seeing the neat little corner of the world that Rin called his home. It was a lot like their shared dorm room back in Samezuka, although Rin shared the apartment with two other swimmers, who were away just then. That was for the best, Sousuke decided. He didn’t want to share Rin any more than he had to. He watched Rin’s mobile, open face, laughing about something or other and smiled back, probably with more affection than Rin was expecting, because he stopped. 

“Sousuke, what’s wrong? You’ve been staring at me without blinking for like five minutes.” 

“I’ve blinked,” Sousuke said. Rin scoffed lightly. 

Sousuke leaned back against his seat and sighed. “I don’t know. I’m happy, I guess. I’ve missed you.” 

Rin went over to him and draped himself over Sousuke’s lap, his mouth pressed against Sousuke’s cheek. “You always say embarrassing things so sincerely.” Then, he leaned back so Sousuke could see his whole face, the light in his eyes that always pulled Sousuke towards him. 

He was thousands of miles away from Iwatobi, in a completely foreign country, but somehow, Sousuke had never felt more at home than he did now with Rin.


End file.
